Photo Album
by Violet-Pears
Summary: Virginia and Anthony were friends as teenagers. Neither of them knew one anothers surnames. 20 years later, Tony Stark finds a photo album of Pepper Potts's. He wants to know why it has pictures of the best 3 years of his life in it,


She flipped through her photo album. Her blue eyes glues to the pictures, all telling different stories. This photo album meant the world to her. Pictures of her times when her parents used to drag her along to all their fancy parties. She was usually a baby sitter, but then Anthony turned up and he was two years older than her. Whenever he was there, he was the baby sitter.

She met Anthony when she was thirteen, and that's when she fell head over heels for him. Someone so laid back, someone who made sure she was always having fun, someone who was so smart, yet didn't make her feel stupid, someone who made her thrive to become successful, yet happy and fun, someone who was the nicest person she met. She knew it wasn't love, but for her, it was close enough.

She didn't see Anthony all the time, only once a month, sometimes twice. But she loved every minutes of it, it made seeing him feel special. He treated her like she was the most important person in his life. He made her feel special when he called her 'his Virginia' and that's what she loved about him, he made her, love her name. He made her feel good and made her laugh.

When she was fifteen she began to see him once every two weeks. Her crush on him was getting worse. She was sure it was borderline love.

Pepper flipped to the next photo. The memory of the night flashed through her mind.

_She sat with Anthony, they were just talking, nothing to exciting. To Virginia it was the most amazing experience in the world. Being in a room, alone, with Anthony. She cherished every moment of it._

"_What would do want to hope you will never, ever, ever do?" Virginia asked, her eyes curious._

_Anthony laughed, his lips pulling up into a smile. "I hope I'll never, ever, ever become a player. I don't understand who guys can do that to girls." Virginia chuckled. Anthony looked at her intently for a moment "What about you, Peps?"_

_Peps. He had given her the nickname Pepper then tossed it aside to call her Peps. Though he still loved to call her Virginia, he called her that more than anything else._

_Virginia sighed. "Me? I hope I never, ever, ever fall in love with a stuck up, full of himself, jerk who sleeps with anything with two breasts and moves."_

_Anthony laughed, but not mockingly. "Aw, Virginia, you know you'll fall in love with someone who will only want you. Someone who will wait for you for eternity." He looked at her with an expression she didn't recognise, he seemed to be so much closer to her. "Someone who knows you and loves you for you. Someone who's loved you for a long time and knows just how to make you happy."_

_Virginia smiled "And what do you hope you will definitely do?"_

_Tony smiled "I hope the girl of my dreams knows I love her, so I show her off to everyone and have them know she's mine. I want to spoil her rotten, just as long as she loves me back. And you?"_

_As she opened her mouth a women's voice was heard from the other room. "Anthony, we have to leave."_

_Anthony left, with a smile and placed a kiss to the back of Peppers hand. As he left, she whispered quietly. "I hope I'm that girl of your dreams."_

Pepper sighed as she flipped through the rest of the album. Passing many pictures she loved, all filled with memories she relived as often as possible. The last page flipped over and a picture of her and Anthony looked up at her. Both dressed in black, both looking sad.

_Her parents had been invited to their friend Howard Stark's funeral when she was sixteen, naturally she was dragged along because 'dear, you knew him.' Anthony had been there, though she still had no idea who he actually was. He never told her who he went to the dinner parties with, he only asked about her, wanting to know more. He never told her his surname so she never told him hers._

_She went around the party with Anthony, the two held hands. Anthony only let go of her hand to eat, other than that, he was almost glued to her side, until it was time for her to go. The look on his face was heart breaking when she was saying good-bye._

"_I hope we'll meet again, Virginia." Anthony had said in a broken-hearted voice, one she hoped to never hear again._

"_Of course we'll see each other again, Tony." She decided to give him a nickname, try make him feel better._

_His lips pulled up into a hopeful smile. "I sure hope so, my sweet little Virginia." And then he kissed her._

_She had never felt so alive. Her parents then dragged her off from the party, dragged her away from Anthony. His eyes were so filled with emotion. But it was those words he said as she was dragged away, those words she wouldn't have believed he had said if it wasn't for the fact she briefly saw his lips move._

"_I love you, Pepper."_

She shut the photo album. Her blue eyes sad. It was twenty years later. Twenty years later and she still had that incredibly huge crush on the best friend she had ever had. Though since the day he had kissed her, she decided to admit to love.

Twenty years later and she hadn't seen Anthony. She had waited, had flings, nothing serious – how could she have a serious relationship when she was so in love with a man she hadn't even seen in twenty years. That's how she had known he was the one.

She stood up. "JARVIS!" She called uneasily.

"Yes, Miss Pott's?" The humanoid voice of Tony Stark's computer rang through the empty room.

"Can you search how many... Never mind." She decided.

Her head dropped and she made her way to the kitchen and headed for the coffee machine.

"JARVIS would kindly assist in any math you struggle with, however I am the genius in the house." Oh how she wished Tony did not intervene with her conversations with JARVIS.

"I'm really not in the mood for your 'I-think-I'm-so-awesome-so-I'll-brag-about-it' mood." Pepper snapped, turning to face her, rather shocked boss.

She let out a deep breath and turned back around, unaware of Tony moving to where she had previously been sitting. Unaware that he spotted the photo album and had picked it up and decided to take a look through it.

The first picture in it, was a bored but smiling thirteen year old Pepper in a black ankle length dress and black flats. Her hair was pinned up on top of her head.

He flipped through each picture, his eyes widening as he looked at each picture. He didn't make it halfway through the album before turning to face his PA.

"Where did you get these?" He asked, no trace of a joking tone left in his voice.

Pepper turned round, her eyes widened at the sight of her open photo album in Tony's hands. "That's mine, give it back." She said sternly.

"Tell me how you got this." Tony replied.

"They are mines. My photos, my album. See that's me in that picture. Red hair, blue eyes, a teenager. Mines." She replied, wondering how it wasn't obvious.

Tony shook his head, obviously unable to comprehend. Or not wanting to.

"Virginia 'Pepper' Potts." He let out a sigh. "I always wondered how you got the nickname Pepper. Now it's so obvious. Nice to finally know your surname Miss Virginia Potts."

Pepper stood as two and two seemed to add up. She blinked once and shook her head. "Nice to know yours too, Anthony Stark."

Tony's face lit up. "Looks like you were right all along."

Pepper shrugged "Aren't I always?"

Tony let out a small chuckle. He walked over to Pepper, slowly before handing her the album. The chuckle died and he looked at her, that same look that had confused her all those years ago. She knew what it was now. It was that same look he gave her the night he first kissed her. It was love.

"I hope you meant what you said, Virginia."

She looked at him, confused. Feeling like a sixteen year old girl. She was confused and hopeful. "Which time?"

"That time we were talking about what we hope we would definitely do." Tony looked at her knowing she knew what he was talking about.

Pepper took in a deep breath. "Of course I did, I didn't think you..."

"Like I'd of left without hearing what you were going to say." He laughed "I knew there was something about you. Thinking I was falling for someone else after all that time, just to discover it was you all this time."

Pepper smiled brightly. "The feeling's mutual Tony."

"I love you."

"And miraculously, I still love you too."

They both did what they hoped to do. To fall in love, for Anthony he got the girl of his dreams to know he loved her, he got to show her off and everyone knew she was his, for Virginia she was the girl of his dreams. But at the same time, they both did what they hoped to never, ever do. Anthony became a player, for him away to pass the time, never spending more than a night with a girl in hope that Virginia would come back into his life. For Virginia, she didn't technically fall in love with a full of himself, jerk or player, she was already in love with him and that was just his was of repelling women, so the real him, was saved just for her.

After twenty years, they got each other back. They like to pretend that they couldn't have possibly gotten together over the ten years that Pepper worker for Tony, because really if she had asked JARVIS that question she was going to every other week since they were introduced, she really could have gotten her Anthony back.

"JARVIS, how many Anthony's aged thirty eight are there in, Los Angeles, California."

"Just under thirty, Miss Potts."

"How many have brown eyes?"

"Just the one, Miss Potts."

"Yeah, let's just pretend there was no way I could have realised Tony, was my Tony..."


End file.
